Garth Brooks Says I’ll Take The 80, They Can Have the 20

When Garth Brooks was at his peak the last time around, I remember a story about him that stuck. Garth visited the sales teams at some of the biggest retailers along with his label sales executives to discuss the set up for one of his albums. After they’d all visited for a bit, Garth asked the label execs to leave the room and he stayed with the retailer’s sales teams. “Now tell me what you wouldn’t tell me if they were in the room,” he said (or so the story goes).

That, you see, is a business-savvy artist. This isn’t for everyone, but if artists are interested in their business, this is exactly the kind of thing you should do.

So it’s not surprising that Garth Brooks has held his records back from digital distribution all this time. Apple wanted to commoditize his albums by forcing him to sell on…